By SALLY DU FOUR

Staff writer

The Northwest Airlines pilot strike which idled 8,500 NWA employees also had its effect on New Ulm area traveler.

Mary Karl of the Travel Fun Tours office in New Ulm said 45 people left New Ulm Wednesday, flying to Seattle to start a tour of the Pacific Northwest and Canadian Rockies. The tour had been scheduled to fly Northwest but the strike Monday meant hours and hours and hours of long-distance calls to make other arrangements.

THE TOUR was rescheduled to fly via Western with a transfer at Denver, instead of direct to Seattle, which meant a “large inconvenience”‘ to the tour members, Ms. Karl noted.

And the 45 travelers had to be ready to leave New Ulm 4 a.m. Wednesday to bus up to Minneapolis, instead of the 8 a.m. leavetaking arranged for the Northwest flight.

ONE NEW ULM family had planned a family reunion in Hawaii as a treat for children and grand-children, with 23 family members flying out not only from New Ulm but from Michigan and Okinawa, When the strike started the family members from Okinawa had already left. Travel Fun managed to get the rest of the family to the celebration flying via Dallas.

In cases where people had previously ticketed reservations, Northwest has to help arrange alternate flights and absorb any additional cost of these arrangements, Ms. Karl said.

For travelers not previously ticketed any higher cost of alternate arrangements is their bad luck.

“The phone lines are jammed; all the travel agencies in the country are trying to get through to the airlines,” she said.

THIS IS the fourth time since 1969 that Northwest employees have been out on strike. Since the strike could have ended at any time the competitive airlines weren’t anxious for all the extra work of trying to absorb Northwest’s passengers, Ms. Karl said. It means overwork and lack of equipment for those competitors.

The effect doesn’t stop with employees laid off and travel agencies’ extra work. Alternate arrangements can also affect hotels and tour operators with a chain reaction, Ms. Karl noted.

New Ulm Daily Journal

August 7, 1925